


Life outside that will persist in entering

by cm (mumblemutter)



Series: To Be Continued [1]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Kink Meme, Multi, Post-Canon, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-12
Updated: 2012-05-12
Packaged: 2017-11-05 05:23:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/402892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mumblemutter/pseuds/cm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper and Tony and Bruce get domestic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life outside that will persist in entering

1.

Tony introduces him as Dr. Bruce Banner. "He's really smart. Also has a wicked alter ego. Show her, Bruce."

"It's not a party trick," Bruce says, but he's already smiling, looks startled into it.

"I've seen him," Pepper says. On an airplane, the flashes of green made for astounding television, but mostly her attention had been focused elsewhere. "It's nice to meet you," she says, and Bruce looks surprised when she shakes his hand warmly. To Tony she says, "I missed your call."

"Can't be helped. Reception's terrible on the far side of the universe."

They hug, in the end, like the old friends they still are, in part because she can't know for sure how close they came this time. She'll find out soon enough and it will probably be very, very close.

Pepper will want to hit him, then. Perhaps have a good cry about it.

But you can't really argue against saving the planet.

 

2.

(Pepper's mother always told her she had impossible standards when it came to men. She objected strenuously at the time, especially since standards seemed to mean: "won't go out with that perfectly nice young doctor who treated my sore foot the time I tripped over the rug." It turns out though, Mom was somewhat right.

 _Impossible_ men.)

 

3.

"Ten levels of pure R&D, like I said," Tony tells Bruce, all the bright-eyed enthusiasm of a man on a mission. "You'll never want to leave."

"Your sign's broken," Bruce says.

"I kind of like it," Tony says, grabbing Pepper's hand and pulling her along for the briefest of moments before he lets her go.

"No," Pepper says. She tells Bruce, "Tony will give you the grand tour, I'll leave you two to it. I have meetings to attend."

It's a long day: contractors, a two hour conference call with a major Tokyo supplier, dealing with the press and trying to minimize the inevitable backlash. By the end of it she's exhausted and cranky. Back home though, she orders dinner for three, and sure enough Tony comes trotting in, Bruce trailing after him uncertainly. "It's not," Pepper says, pointing at the extra place at the table, "an imposition."

 

4.

Fury calls Tony and says, "I won't lie to you, listen." Tony doesn't say much, he just walks out of the room, leaves a mildly befuddled Bruce and Pepper to take down the details: where Phil  
is, his medical condition. "He's doing great," Fury says. "He'll be out and about in no time."

"The wonders of modern medicine," Pepper says, and Fury frowns.

"Miracles happen all the time."

"Sure they do."

Three days later, Tony is still refusing to go and see him, "And don't send him flowers, either." He frowns at Pepper, who just smiles serenely. "Jarvis, I'm serious."

"I'm so sorry, sir. They've already been arranged. A cheerful bouquet of sunflowers. I'm told Agent Coulson was very touched."

Tony crosses his arms and rounds on Bruce, who just blinks. "Are you going to visit him?"

"I kind of wasn't around when he supposedly died." He makes a falling down motion with his arm. "I missed the speech."

"I don't enjoy being manipulated. See if I help them save the world the next time."

On the way to visit, Bruce leans over to Pepper, "Is it always this easy?"

"It helps if you're sleeping with him," Pepper says.

"Ah," Bruce says, intrigue crossing his face for the briefest of seconds. Interesting.

"He'll get over it eventually."

"Stop conspiring against me," Tony says.

 

5.

Tony's methods of seduction, when the normal method of just introducing himself as Tony Stark - thank you very much and please leave your underwear at the door - doesn't work, are pretty simple. Pepper knows this from years of experience. Diamonds for women, watches for men.

Bruce gets a fully equipped lab to go wild in, a full staff, and, Pepper frowns at the invoice, "Why do we need another particle accelerator again?"

"We don't need it, but if you wrap it up in a bow it looks impressive." Tony perches at the edge of her desk and says, "I like him. You could like him too." There isn't the faintest hint of a smile on his face. This is a question, and a request. From a man who doesn't do requests.

"I do," Pepper says honestly.

 

6.

She's in one of the labs, leaning over Bruce as he explains to her the modifications he's made to the arc reactor. "So we can improve the - is something wrong," Bruce asks.

"No, yes. That was always the goal, but it's at least a year away in research."

Bruce takes off his glasses, and looks for all the world like a man not used to compliments. Which shouldn't be the case, she's read enough about Dr. Bruce Banner to be aware of his reputation, and Tony. Tony gives his respect rarely, and his unreserved friendship even less.

But perhaps it's just been a while. "So this is what's kept you and Tony up all night for weeks?"

Bruce flushes slightly. "Sorry, I don't mean to occupy his time."

"Oh, it's all right. I could use a break. Tony's kind of high maintenance."

"I hadn't noticed."

Pepper leans close to take a look at the modified arc, brilliantly gleaming in its case, just as Bruce does the same. "I'm sorry," he says again.

"I'm - did you just sniff my hair?"

"No, of course not, I wouldn't," Bruce says. "You - smell familiar."

"Tony, probably."

Bruce backs away, slow and deliberate. "He's just about the only friend I have. I wouldn't -"

"Wouldn't what?" Tony glides into the room, wraps an arm around Pepper's waist. "He's mine. You're not allowed to steal him away."

Pepper clasps her hands to her chest. "I would never dream of doing such a thing."

"No, you do. You always try to take away my favorite toys."

"I should go," Bruce says, stepping away from the two of them. "I'll come back later."

Tony reaches out, grabs hold of the tail of Bruce's shirt. "Stay," he says.

"I need to collect some samples from upstairs."

"Stay," Tony says, and kisses him.

In the end, it's as easy as that.

 

7.

When Phil is released he drops by, brings along Steve Rogers with him. Steve is amiable, polite. Calls her Ma'am as if he means it. "I'm showing Steve around the city," Phil says, sounding for the briefest of seconds like an excited schoolboy. If he's surprised to see Bruce there, huddled together with Tony as they discuss seasonal variations in the decay rates of radioisotopes he doesn't show it. Instead he says, "He still mad?" He couldn't speak much in the hospital, and Tony had stared blankly at him for a while before deciding to go for a coffee break and forgetting to return.

"I tried to tell him it was probably Fury's idea," Pepper says.

"I can be angry at them both," Tony pipes up.

"He's not mad anymore," Pepper says.

"Well, I for one am happy Agent Coulson's alive," Steve says, before he strides forward to shake Bruce's hand, and then Tony's.

"The miraculous return to life of someone who should be dead. I wonder why that would be a storyline you'd be invested in," Tony says.

"You're a funny man, Stark," Steve says, but he doesn't look too offended.

When they leave, Bruce says, "S.H.I.E.L.D. is worried about me."

"Yes, but I told you I'm taking care of it. It's far easier than making sure the internet doesn't find out who you are." There are sites now dedicated to finding out if the Hulk is a man or not, and who is he if that's true. Advanced facial recognition software, Bruce's eyes went wide and alarmed when Tony first brought it up, displayed an array of images around him that might send even a man not as paranoid as Bruce Banner running.

"Tony takes care of people," Pepper says, even though this isn't always true.

 

8.

In bed, she's in Tony's lap and Bruce is facing her, hesitant to touch until she puts her hand on his chest. "I have control issues," Bruce says, but he leans into the contact, his breath ghosting against her skin.

"Don't we all," Pepper says. Tony wraps his arms around them both. The reactor is cold against her spine, but she's warm everywhere else. "Oh, fuck," she says, when Tony slides up into her.

"She swears," Tony murmurs against the nape of her neck. "Jarvis, one dollar into the jar."

"Not fair," Pepper says, and then she stops because Bruce is kissing her. Not at all like a man asking for permission, Pepper thinks. She gasps and opens her mouth to let him slide his tongue in, fucking it until she's dizzy.

He does the same to Tony later, and when he breaks away Tony laughs, says, "See, this works."

"You're ruining the mood," Pepper says, and nestles her head against Bruce's chest.

 

9.

(She went out with the nice young doctor, in the end. It lasted six months, and then there was another nice young man and then yet another. At some point she convinced herself that Tony wasn't her type at all.

Which is true: Whatever Tony is, he is nobody's type.

And then there's Bruce.)

 

10.

Tony makes a fist and shoves it in Bruce's direction. Bruce just stares blankly at it, until Tony takes his hand and bends his fingers. "See, it's a fist-bump. Did you lose all your manners in the wild?"

Pepper busies herself with her paperwork and ignores the two of them. Perhaps it won't become a thing.

Bruce says, "No, but I'm not eighteen."

"Maturity is overrated. So is being sensible." Tony grins, only faintly mirthless. "A sensible man wouldn't play with gamma radiation like it was a game he could beat."

"And look where that got me."

"Seems like a pretty good place to me." They stare at each other for a while, until Pepper clears her throat.

"It could be worse," Bruce says, holding his hand out in a fist.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/4305.html?thread=2868689).
> 
> Title taken from "[Netting](http://greatpoets.livejournal.com/3504196.html)" by Jorie Graham.


End file.
